TBR's

July Wrap-Up and August TBR

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Books read in July:

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman:
4 stars.
A book with an ending I didn’t expect which always makes reading more enjoyable. The story of a woman with an ordinary life these days. But her life wasn’t always ordinary. The book deals with many different themes including loneliness and was a spectacular read.
Favourite Quote: “It’s SpongeBob, Eleanor,” he said, speaking very slowly and clearly as though I were some sort of idiot. “SpongeBob SquarePants?” A semi-human bath sponge with protruding front teeth! On sale as if it were something completely unremarkable! For my entire life, people have said that I’m strange, but really, when I see things like this, I realize that I’m actually relatively normal.”

Munmun by Jesse Andrews:
3 stars.
The writing style used in this book does take some getting used to. It’s a little like a beginners version of the language used in A Clockwork Orange, but easier to figure out the meanings to words. I think the writing style is meant to be as if the main character Warner is writing the book himself, as he is illiterate at the beginning of the book, it makes sense that he would write phonetically, e.g. in the book six is written as sicks, while many words are spaced out or pushed together as Warner is used to hearing words said this way instead of writing them.
The book is set in a world where the amount of money you have directly corresponds to how tall you are, so the poorest are the size of rats, while the richest are giants. The story is an interesting look at society and how people with a ton of money just don’t have to worry about the same things as others – like cat attacks in the book. While I did empathise with the characters the plot didn’t pull me in the way I had hoped and the main reason I finished the book was because of the characters rather than the plot or the writing.
Favourite Quote: “”Yeah it’s true, Lifty is the secret home of geniuses,” I said. “Yesterday during Generic Distress Response three guys working together invented a brandnew way to get trapped under a bus.””

July TBR:

The Island by M.A. Bennett: A retelling of The Lord of The Flies by William Goldman. Although I had to read The Lord of The Flies at school and declared I hated it at the time and haven’t read it since. I am interested to see what a modern retelling of the story is like and whether it’s the general plot I disliked or whether it was just that I had to read it in school.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson: A set of short stories by Shirley Jackson. I have previously only read her novel We Have Always Lived in The Castle so want to read more of her work.

 

TBR's

Reverse Readathon TBR

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The Reverse readathon is a readathon organised by the people who run the Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon. The readathon starts at the same time across the world and goes for 24 hours. This means that usually the readathon starts at 1pm in the UK. However, as this is a reverse readathon then it will start at the opposite time, so 1am on Saturday for me and it will go until 1am on Sunday.

I will be at work for most of the day tomorrow but will be able to read through the night. I will be reading:

MunMun by Jesse Andrews – I got this book from the Readers First website and want to finish it so I can write my review.

The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue – This was the book chosen by my book club for the month of August.

The Lost in Limbo books by Angela Roquet – I have these books on Audible and have been meaning to finish them for the past few months. As they are on Audible I will be able to listen to the books on my way to and from work during the day.

 

Book Reviews

June Wrap-Up and July TBR

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Books read in June:

War Storm – Victoria Aveyard:
3 Stars
This is the final story in the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard, though the first book in the series is one of my favourite books from the last few years, the third book in the series and this one will not be. The book wraps up the series well and doesn’t fall into the trap of many books of the same genre in trying to give all the characters a happy ending and thew ending of the book does make sense for the characters, but I’m still disappointed by it.
Favourite Quote: “Soft hands, better suited to book pages. Never used in war. Never needed in battle. I envy those hands.”

As They Say in Zanzibar – David Crystal:
4 Stars
This is a linguistics book that I got from the library and is mainly a book of proverbs from around the world. As someone who studies linguistics as much as they can it is interesting to learn how different countries have different sayings for the same situations and hoe some sayings are more well known than others.
Favourite Quote: “Those who hear not the music think the dancers mad – China.”

City of Circles – Jess Richards:
3 Stars
This is a book set partly in a circus and partly in a city called Matryoshka – the city of circles from the title. I enjoyed reading about the world and the places in the book more than I enjoyed the actual plot and story. Matryoshka is a city that seems like places I have been and places I have never been at the same time and reading the book did make me wonder if it is time I went travelling again, but the plot didn’t capture as I had hoped it would.

Books to read in July:

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman:
This book is the book chosen by my book group for July and I have been recommended this book by a few different people so was waiting for a reason to go and buy it. The book follows Eleanor as she tries to stop being lonely. Having already read the first few pages I can already tell I am going to thoroughly enjoy reading this book, I just hope I can finish it before I meet with my book group!

Mun Mun – Jesse Andrews:
This book is the latest book I have received from Readers First in exchange for a review so will be doing a full review of this book after I have finished it. The book is set in a world where your physical size is directly related to how much money you have and those with the least money are roughly the size of mice. It follows one person as they try to make more money so they can become taller. The book seemed such an interesting way of looking at wealth in society that it seemed impossible not to read.

TBR's

May Wrap-Up and June TBR

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Books Read in May:
Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides:

2.5 Stars.
This was the book chosen for my Book Club in May. I was on holiday at the time so missed the meeting discussing it, but finished the book anyway. The book is well written, though it doesn’t seem so much to be a story at least not one with a clear ending. Though this is obviously on purpose, making the book read more like a memoir than a fiction, it did leave me feeling intimately disappointed after reading the rest of the book.
Favourite Quote: “‘Whoever named it morning sickness was a man,’ Lina declared.  ‘He was just home in the morning to notice.’”
The Illumination of Ursula Flight – Anna Marie Crowhurst:

3 Stars.
I got this book to read from the Readers First website and my review of the book can be found here

The book is well written and generally quite quick to read, though the story is a bit slow and the ending did leave me a little disappointed.

Favourite Quote: “there was nothing I liked more than to see my own name drawn out by my own hand, and so I wrote it everywhere I could, including places I knew were forbidden”.
The Little Friend – Donna Tartt:

3 Stars.

I had had this book on my to read pile for over a year by the beginning of May so wanted to read it before I read anything else. If you are a fan of Donna Tartt’s writing then you will enjoy the writing in this story, though the story itself seemed a little convoluted and difficult to follow. I am glad I have read the book but will probably never read the book again.

Favourite Quote: “She did not care for children’s books in which the children grew up, as what “growing up” entailed (in life as in books) was a swift and inexplicable dwindling of character; out of a clear blue sky the heroes and heroines abandoned their adventures for some dull sweetheart, got married and had families, and generally started acting like a bunch of cows.”

TBR:

In June I will read:

War Storm – Victoria Aveyard: 
This is the final book in The Red Queen series. The first book was my favourite book I read in 2015 and while I have read all the other books in the series including the short story prequels, the third book in the series was not as good as the first two. But I am invested in the series and need to finish this book this month so I can find out how everything turns out!

As They Say In Zanzibar – David Crystal:
This is essentially just a big book of proverbs from around the world and is a book I got from the library. I do linguistics and so when I went to the library for another book entirely, the chance to learn some proverbs from around the world was too good an opportunity to pass up.

City of Circles – Jess Richards:
This is the third book by an author I have met before and as this story is a love story set partly in a circus, I am looking forward to reading this book more than I was the first two.

 

 

 

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Bout of Books 22 Update Post

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The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 14th and runs through Sunday, May 20th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 22 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

Goals:

I am a little late in signing up for this one as the readathon started yesterday but am hoping to finish at least two books over the course of the week and will update this post each day (leaving out Monday obviously.)

Tuesday:

Pages read: 17

Notes: Didn’t get much reading done as was out most of the day but will be able to get a bit more done tomorrow.

Wednesday:

Pages read: 80

Total pages read: 97

Notes: am hoping to finish reading The Little Friend by Donna Tartt tomorrow which has been in my TBR for over a year now, am also hoping to participate in the challenge tomorrow.

Thursday:

Pages read: 192

Total pages read: 289

Notes: Did not quite manage to finish The Little Friend today and will probably be the weekend before I manage the last hundred pages. However, these two books arrived today:

War Storm by Victoria Aveyard and The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All The Way Home by Catherynne M. Valente

And as I have been wanting to read both these books for a long time, I started reading them yesterday and will be reading them over the weekend as well.

Friday:

Pages read: 24

Total Pages Read: 313

Notes: Knew I wouldn’t be able to get as much reading done today as I was in work most of the day but did get more done than I thought!

Saturday:

Pages Read: 35

Total Pages Read: 348

Sunday: 

Pages Read: 110

Total Pages Read: 458

Notes:

Even though I did not manage to finish The Little Friend by Donna Tartt I have made huge progress in that book considering it has been on my TBR pile for over a year and I will be able to finish it soon. If I had remembered to sign up for the readathon on Monday I would have been able to reach 500 pages so for the next one I need to put it into my calendar so I don’t forget! Despite not finishing a book I always enjoy the Bout of Books readathon and set myself more goals for the next one.

 

 

Book Reviews

Book Review: The Illumination of Ursula Flight (Anna-Marie Crowhurst)

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“there was nothing I liked more than to see my own name drawn out by my own hand, and so I wrote it everywhere I could, including places I knew were forbidden”

The story follows Ursula Flight as she vows while young to become an actress and the twists of fate that must happen for a respectable woman to become an actor in the 17th century.

“”She tried to cure the baker with a toasted toad,” said Mary. “But she only gave him warts.””

The book is well researched and the characters are well rounded making them feel real as you are reading it.
The book is a bit slow considering it is mainly just the story of Ursula’s life and though the pay off at the end is great for Ursula, it doesn’t feel like enough to warrant the build up of all the previous chapters.

“SIBELIAH: I cannot look at the sunset!

URSULA: Plainly you must open your eyes first or you will not see it.”

The writing includes some scripts and lists which make the reading easier and quicker as you go along and the writing style is humorous without ever going anachronistic in it’s style.

Book Reviews

Book Review: The Electrical Venus (Julie Mayhew)

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“Some of us start humble and choose to climb. Then comes the fall, a momentary loss of balance, but we get up, we brush ourselves down, we bathe in dust and we ready our feathers. For soon, I believe, we will sing, bird. In ways quite fantastic, we shall sing.”

This is a book that got better near to the end. Not that it wasn’t good at the beginning, but having seen the characters grow and learn from their mistakes throughout the book it does make the ending more enjoyable.

“‘Will it feel as sure as a punch to the jaw? Like the sting of alcohol upon a wound? Will it be as certain as the teeth of a goose? Or as sound as a beating with a wooden spoon?'”
The book has three perspectives, one a narrator, and the other two the characters Mim and Alex – these two characters perspectives are written as if they are diary entries, but on account of them both being circus performers instead of writing their diary entries down, they speak to the animals in the circus in monologues that would do well to be read aloud – at the back of the book it is stated that the book started life as a radio show which explains the monologues.
“MISS MIM, a Student of Natural Philosophy, Human Nature and Magical Electrickery, and her Partner, MASTER ALEX, a lofty Tumbler, Rope Dancer and Acrobat of some Distinction will demonstrate the accurate Disposition of the Heart via the most extraordinary Means.”

The characters are well written and I found myself truly invested in their stories and characterisation by the end of the book.

Book Reviews

Book Review: The Pharmacist’s Wife (Vanessa Tait)

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3/5 stars.

“‘But we find a bee’s sting in nature, why should we not find this? Only instead of poison there is pleasure…'”

Set in 1869, the book follows Rebecca Palmer as she is given a new medicine created by her husband named heroin. The book follows her descent into addiction and although the drug takes her away from her unhappy marriage with Mr Palmer, her life starts to unravel.

“The very last shoe any woman could run away in.”
The book has possibly slightly too many things in it. Rebecca’s descent into addiction and the world she now finds herself in would have been plot enough, instead we are shown Victorian bawdy houses, as well as Mr Palmer’s belief that heroin will prove to be a wonder drug for women to keep them in their place and to stop them from wanting to encroach on the world of men.
While these scenes are well written and do to an extent have an impact on the plot, you can’t help but feel that the story would remain exactly the same if they were taken out.

“‘For women are strong and bear much punishment.”
The last third of the book is the only time where I found the book to be a page turner – without revealing too much – Rebecca finds an ingenious way to take revenge on her husband for making her addicted to heroin.
The book is a good read, especially for all the knowledge of Victorian pharmacy that is inside it, but it was not the same book I was expecting to read.

Book Reviews

Book Review: To Kill a Kingdom (Alexandra Christo)

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“Technically I’m a murderer, but I like to think that’s one of my better qualities.”

This book is loosely based on The Little Mermaid, but is a darker retelling of the story as instead of a mermaid the main character is a siren turned human for punishment. In order to redeem herself she must take the heart of a prince in her human form.

“Love is a word we scarcely hear in the ocean.”

The book is a joy to read, as both the story and the writing style compliment each other well and it seems that the surface of the world created in the book has barely been scratched, as there are a hundred kingdoms and we only visit a handful.

“Is that what it means to be human? Pushing someone else out of danger and throwing yourself in?”

The book is a standalone so the ending ties everything together well but could have been done over more than a few pages and any other books set in this world, but following different characters, would be interesting to read to find out more about the hundred kingdoms.

“I died once and I haven’t been able to do it again since.”

For a debut novel or for any novel, the story is compelling and the writing style unique, and I will definitely read whatever story Alexandra Christo tells next.

5/5.

 

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How To Get More Books

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“When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.” – Erasmus.

Lovely though this sentiment is, I don’t think I have ever met anyone for whom this quote is true. Even the most dedicated bibliophile would, if the choice came down to it, choose food first; because you can’t read books if you’ve starved.

Yet book reviewers online sometimes seem to be following this quote through, or at least have vast disposable incomes that allow them to buy six new books a month and hardly get around to reading a single one of them.

The answer of course is that they don’t buy all of the books they read. Some are presents, some are offered by publishers and some are bought (after food), but if you are new to book reviewing how do you start being given books before you are able to justify buying them in vast quantities?

Well as I am new to this as well, I have found a few places. The website readersfirst offers a preview of various books on a Monday, if you write a review of the preview then you are entered into a draw to win a copy of the book – the book will arrive before it’s released and all you have to do is read it and give a review of the finished product by the publication day. They say it’s a draw to win the book but so far I have won all three of the books I have previewed, so it’s not rare to win.

Other places include bookbub which can send you emails for daily deals on ebooks. Want to start reading that new series? Well for one day only it’s 99p instead of £7.99! Though the books offered here are e-books rather than physical versions, the writers will all still value reviews.

Author websites also regularly offer books in exchange for honest reviews. And though I am yet to try this so am not sure how it works, some publishers can be contacted directly to ask for copies of books to review. In all the cases the only thing you need to do is review the book once you have finished and if that allows me to gain a new book every month then I am all for it. I don’t even need to make the decision between food or books. Unlike poor Erasmus.

Book Reviews

Book Review: Sunflowers in February by Phyllida Shrimpton

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I was interested to read this book as it seemed to be a YA story about death that took new paths about the subject, it is and it isn’t.

“It is almost as if snow has come in the night, just for my pleasure,”
The main character Lily manages to get a few extra days on earth courtesy of her brother and she uses this time to help her friends start to accept her death. There are a few missed opportunities for storylines in the book and while we have a first person p.o.v. for Lily, every so often there are a few pages in the third person for another character such as her mother or a friend which I feel wasn’t necessary to see things from the other characters p.o.v. as well as Lily’s.

“A bright moon casts a blue light across the room,”
I did enjoy the writing style, feeling that it was close to actual teenage speech and I have read many books where this was not the case. The writing style does make the more obvious themes of the story entertaining to read meaning I wasn’t tempted to skip parts of the book at any point.

“I picture their golden heads waving under the orange African sunshine in a few months’ time,”
The book explores themes of grief, regret and acceptance in a way I have not read before and as this is a debut novel I would be interested in reading more by the author.

3/5

 

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DNF Or Not Finishing Books

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I confess, even though it is not yet the end of January there have been a couple of books I have Not Finished, giving up reading them halfway through, or even only a few pages in. This is rare for me and both the books were ones on my kindle, that I bought at some point last year and had not got around to reading precisely because I had bought them when they were on offer, and wasn’t sure I would actually enjoy them.

Usually if I am going to DNF a book I will know within the first few pages, rarely do I give up a book once I am past the first chapter. This is because my usual reason for not finishing books is the writing – the first book I ever didn’t finish on purpose was a novelisation of Sabrina The Teenage Witch when I was eleven on the basis that I thought I could have written it when I was five years younger. It also took me three goes to finish reading The Lord of The Rings because I got annoyed that I couldn’t read the Elvish, but these books were given up on very early on, the books I have DNF’d this year I have given up much later in the story.

If I get past the first few chapters of a book then by that point even if I am not necessarily enjoying the story, the book may still benefit from being reviewed and you shouldn’t review a book you did not finish. After the first few chapters I am always to some extent invested in the story and characters and at the very least want to keep reading just to see whether everything gets resolved, or any of the characters I have decided to like manage to stay alive until the end.

So if you give up a book halfway or even three quarters through, what happened then that didn’t happen in the first few pages? Well, in my case, the reasons don’t seem to change. If the story is not what I expected, or the story doesn’t involve the one character I liked, or I’m halfway through and the story has not yet started. The book I am currently reading, does not seem to be the same as I imagined before I started, and yet this book I am carrying on reading, because there is still the drive that I want to know what happens in the end, and that is of course down to the writing, so maybe in the end that is the only reason I DNF any books. If the writing does not make the story and characters interesting then either nothing will or the writing needs changing.

On the plus side, not finishing books is a means of decluttering your kindle bookshelf or your real bookshelves and you won’t know a book is going to be one you will not finish until you have tried to finish it.

 

Book Reviews

Book Rating System

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So, one of my goals for this year is to write more book reviews, both on here and on Goodreads. That includes rating the books as well. In the past, I have usually just finished reading books and not rated them, but this neither helps the authors of the books or the algorithm on Goodreads to know what sort of books I want to read next, but as someone who doesn’t regularly rate books they’ve read, what exactly is my rating system? What makes one book one star and another five stars? Well I think I’ve come up with a rating system that makes sense for me so here goes:

1 star – I rarely give books one star. Usually if there is a book that I am going to give one star it’s going to be a book that I DNF, although for me this is rare. If I don’t finish a book then I tend not to rate it based on the idea that while the book was not enjoyable for me that isn’t true for everybody in the world.

2 stars: Any book that had enough plot/character development for me to finish the book but is not a book I will ever read again, nor read any other books in the series as they come out will probably get two stars.

3 stars: Any book that I did enjoy but feel could have been better. If the book is part of a series, I will not actively search for the future books but if I see one while browsing in a bookshop or someone wants to buy me the book as a present then I will gladly read the next ones in the series.

4 stars: Any book I give four stars to, is a book I did enjoy and will want to buy any future books in that series and will actively try to read other work by that author. I will not buy other books by the author or in that series immediately but will whenever I can afford to.

5 stars: Any book I give 5 stars to, I will read everything else by that author and will buy all other books in that series as they come out, wanting to have the first edition of any future books in the series. I will tell everyone I know to also read the book and will generally believe that the author can do no wrong writing wise, adding them to my favourite authors list.

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Bout of Books 21 Update Post

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So I’m a little late signing up to this one (a day) but I have a few hours before the sign up link goes!

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 8th and runs through Sunday, January 14th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 21 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

Goals for the read-a-thon:

  1. Read 1000 pages throughout the week.
  2. Participate in three challenges and one twitter chat.
  3. Comment on at least three other blogs throughout the week.

The first book I am reading is one I started yesterday: (so can I count the pages I read yesterday if I wasn’t signed up? I think I can.) Moon Signs Helen Haught Fanick.

Day 1:

Pages read: 25

Notes: Considering I didn’t know the read-a-thon was happening yesterday, I’m quite impressed that I decided to read any pages at all as I was out of the house for most of the day!

Day 2:

Pages read: 100

Total pages read: 125

Notes: Was hoping to finish reading Moon Signs by Helen Haught Fanick today but as I only have about 40 pages left I will be able to finish it before I go to work tomorrow.

Day 3:

Pages read: 100

Total pages read: 225

Books finished: Moon Signs by Helen Haught Fanick

Notes: Managed to finish Moon Signs this morning and started The Graveyard Shift by Angela Roquet. I didn’t really enjoy Moon Signs much, I only decided to read it because it has been on my kindle for the best part of a year, but The Graveyard Shift is already much more enjoyable than the last book. I am out for most of the day tomorrow but should be able to do a bit of reading while I’m at the hairdressers!

Day 4: 

Pages read: 45

Total pages read: 270

Notes: Will be out of the house for most of the day tomorrow, but am hoping I will be back in the evening to take part in the challenge for today. And have realised I can’t take part in the twitter chat on Saturday as I will be at work during it.

Day 5:

Pages read: 31

Total pages read: 301

Challenge: Newspaper Headlines – From Pantomime by Laura Lam: Runaway Noble Joins Circus.

Though the first book in this series is not just about the circus. It is where the main plot of the book takes place and I can easily imagine that this headline would appear in a sensationalist newspaper that exists within the world of the book!

Day 6:

Pages read: 107

Total pages read: 408

Challenge: Book spine poetry. Makes me wish I had more books with verbs in the titles, but think this would make quite a good start to some kind of gothic fairytale!

Photo on 13-01-2018 at 19.44 #2
The Cruel Prince, Red Queen, Cooking With Bones, Through The Woods

Day 7:

Pages read: 365

Total pages read: 773

Books finished: The Graveyard Shift by Angela Roquet, The Pocket Watch by Ceci Giltenan and The In-Betweener by Ann Christy

Challenge: Leave a Book Review: I put a short review of The Pocket Watch by Ceci Giltenan on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2257534434

Notes: only had a few pages of The Graveyard Shift to finish this morning and spent the day going through a few of the e-books I have had on my kindle for about a year without reading. The Pocket Watch – the first in a series – was enjoyable enough to read and relatively quick to read as well. There was nothing in the story that I didn’t expect but I would like to read the other stories in the series. The Graveyard Shift by Angela Roquet is another series that I want to read more of being a concept that I have never come across before – Lana is a reaper in the underworld. And The In-Betweener by Ann Christy was an interesting read about a zombie apocalypse. Most of the book takes place over the course of only a few days with flashbacks to how the apocalypse started and the events that led to where the main character was staying. Considering the only thing that happens in the present timeline of the book is the main character leaves where she is living to go and collect some people who need help and take them back to where she has been living, the book is more gripping than you would think so with that as the main plot line. I’m not sure if I want to read the rest of the books in the series or not, but as zombie stories go it is not the worst one I have read by a long shot.

 

Book Reviews

Book Review: The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

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“In Faerie, there are no fish sticks, no ketchup, no television.”

The Cruel Prince is the first book in a new fantasy series by Holly Black and it certainly sets up the future books in the series well. The first chapter is a prologue where we learn how the main character of Jude came to be a mortal living in Faerie, and the book shows the darker side of Faerie lore from the beginning.

“I can no more guess the assumptions that go along with glittering sneakers than a child in a dragon costume knows what real dragons would make of the cooler of her scales.”

At the beginning of the book I thought I understood where it was going to go and how the story was going to play out, but reading further you start to have suspicions that all is not as Jude thinks in the world of Faerie. There is more than one plot twist in the book and while I guessed one of the main ones, I did not guess the one at the end, which is always refreshing for me as I have a habit of guessing endings.

“‘Nice things don’t  happen in storybooks,” Taryn says. ‘Or when they do happen, something bad happens next. Because otherwise the story would be boring, and no one would read it.'”

A lot of this book is set up for the next one in the series and while the set up does need to happen, the first half of the book does drag a little, but the second half more than makes up for that as Jude learns to use the weaknesses of Faerie to her advantage and the book ends when Jude’s plan is just starting to be borne out.